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Australia's gender wage gap 'costs $93b'

The gender wage gap costs Australia $93 billion a year in productivity, and 60 per cent of the disparity comes down simply to "being a woman", a report shows.

The gap between men and women's pay remains at 17 per cent, and the total dollar figure is the equivalent of 8.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), the National Centre of Social Economic Modelling (NATSEM) reveals.

NATSEM on Monday released its report - The impact of a sustained gender wage gap on the Australian economy - which details the age-old wage discrimination issue.

The report drew on two decades of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) wage data between, 1990 and 2009.

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It shows the gap climbed from a low of 15 per cent in February 2005 to a high of 17 per cent four years later.

The report's authors used micro-economic modelling to determine that the gender factor accounted for 60 per cent of the wage gap between men and women.

Industry segregation was the second largest factor, accounting for 25 per cent of the gap.

Segregation shows that a number of industries are populated primarily by men, while other industries are served mainly by women.

Overall, the 17 per cent wage gap results in less incentive for women to work and could be worth about $93 billion or 8.5 per cent of GDP each year, NATSEM found.

"This suggests that based on the assumptions of the model, the negative impact of the gender wage gap on Australia's macro-economic performance stems primarily from the disincentives to work more hours associated with women's earnings being lower than men's," the report states.

The Australian Services Union last week launched a gender pay gap test case with Fair Work Australia, focusing on the lower pay of community sector workers.

The union argues that lower wages in the female-dominated community sector - including women's refuges, family support centres, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and migrant resources - should be brought into line with pay rates in a similar, male-dominated industry.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard said it was "in the long-term interests of this nation to sort this issue out and for us to have a community and social services sector with an appropriately dealt with, highly professional workforce".